Archive for the 'Sukkot' Category

Anniversary: Kristallnacht“Crystal Night” or “Night of Broken Glass” was named for the smashed and broken glass of store windows as mobs and troops turned on Jewish residents in towns throughout Germany. Businesses and Synagogues were burned or destroyed while bonfires consumed Jewish prayer books and Torah scrolls. Over 30,000 Jewish men were taken to concentration camps.

Simchat Torah (begins at sundown – Jewish)
The final day of the holiday of Sukkot, Simchat Torah is a Jewish holiday, which translates literally to the Joy of the Torah. The holiday marks the end of the annual cycle of reading the Jewish Bible and the beginning of the new cycle. In Israel, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are celebrated simultaneously.

Sukkot (Jewish – begins at sundown)
With the final blowing of the Shofar, The Jewish High Holy Days draw to a close and the focus of the Jewish community shifts from the solemnness of Yom Kippur to the jubilant celebration of the festival of Sukkot.

The festival of Sukkot, also known as Chag’ha Succot, the “Feast of Booths” (or Tabernacles), is named for the huts (sukkah) that Moses and the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land. These huts were made of branches and were easy to assemble, take apart, and carry as the Israelites wandered through the desert.

Did you know that the ninth day of Sukkot (the eighth day in Israel) is called Simchat Torah?

On this holiday, the final passage of the Torah, or Five Books of Moses, is read and the first passages of Genesis is begun anew. The holiday is celebrated by calling every person up to the Torah for an “aliyah”, or special blessing over the sacred text. Festive dancing is also common.